Tuesday, 1 May 2018

Netflix Retrospective: Luke Cage Season 1 episodes 11-13 - Now You're Mine/Soliloquy of Chaos/You Know my Steez

Sorry this is late but let's finish this series up, shall we




Now you’re mine

People run out of the clue screaming as Diamondback’s men are firing everywhere. Shades enters and isn’t too happy to find them shooting up the club. Diamondback tells them to shoot misty, so Luke carries her into the kitchen. Then moves various kitchen stuff to block the door. Unfortunately, Claire is captured which gives Dimaondback the bright idea of using hostages or something and impersonating Luke Cage again. I’m siding with Shades on this one, this is, how does one put it in the Marvel universe….


Luke’s already surmised that they’ve got entrances barred, fortunately Luke knew a few of the places secrets from having worked there. Luke fortunately gets her below ground as Diamondback blows the doors down. The police have a team outside, with Ridley heading up the team and wanting contact with Misty. ESU has arrived and is going to enter but Ridley shuts them down since they don’t know what the hostages want.

Shades and the crew enter the kitchen, but find nothing. Diamondback convinces Shades that all is in hand. Damon Boone calls the police and tells them not to enter as ‘Luke Cage’ is threatening to kill. Misty finds her cell phone but it’s too broken to get a message. She’s scared, her bleeding is quite severe, even with what Luke Cage could do to patch her up, and she doesn’t want to die like Scarfe

Boone is forced to read Diamondback’s bible, which has been highlighted and noted on. Claire speaks to Candace, the girl who testified against Luke, and helps reassure her about her leg. She confesses to Claire that she gave false testimony. She tells Claire where Luke might be and gets her to fake passing out, which she does surprisingly easily. She knocks her escort down the stairs and proceeds to them.

Misty finally gets her head on straight and promises Luke help unfortunately Tower is here to pass on news: Mariah is selling the idea of bullsh*t bullets to the Mayor. Boone calls again with his demands, a chopper on the roof, and that’s it… shouldn’t that be suspect? Anyway, despite reservations from both Tower and Ridley, they’re gonna use the bullsh*t bullets. Boone also tells them that half the hostages are to be released, and 4 come out.

Claire makes it to Misty, and we get a hint about her losing her arm. I think it’s supposed to be a tease but given what happens later, I prefer to call it foreshadowing. OK, Diamondback’s wax poetry about the bible and his mother and his dumb motivation of petty jealousy is boring. You can’t make me feel sorry for him now.

The hostage reports don’t line up with what the police think, which makes the need to find and get Misty out alive all the more important. With the report of the knocked out guard finally reaching Shades’ ears, he knows both Claire and Candace now have die or things will fall apart.

Bored of waiting, Diamondback uses the intercom to talk, a hostage dies every 10 minutes until Luke surrenders himself, starting, conveniently for Mariah, with Damon Boone. Claire ties Misty's vein, but in the process cutting off blood to her arm, without proper medical assistance she’s gonna lose the arm. OK, now we’re getting to the meat of Diamondback’s origin. Carl and him had been joyriding or something but got caught. Carl went to the marines, Willis to juvie, but he was jumped and had to kill in self-defence, but this got him sent away to do hard time.

Although with all of this I’m surprised the Vendetta isn’t against Luke’s father. Luke had no control over any of this. Luke easily overpowers the guards but Diamondback is testing out his stupid gloves again and kills Boone. He’s dropped outside and this convinces Ridley to let the ESU storm the building. After washing his hands from the blood, Shades notices the floor creaking and finds the hideaway, confronting Misty with a gun. Between her and Claire they manage to overpower him.

The ESU arm themselves up with bullsh*t bullets. Luke cuts the power, and manages to free all remaining hostages except Candice, who’s now being held over a ledge at gunpoint. The ESU storm the buildings as Candace is released and Luke catches her, with no other option he surrenders to the cops.

Misty proclaims Luke’s innocence and whilst Ridley does trust her, she feels verification is necessary, especially with the other crimes Luke is accused of. Claire, in a very gratifying moment, stomps on Shades’ shades as he’s also arrested along with all the goons Luke knocked out. Diamondback escapes thanks to Zip knowing Cottonmouth’s escape plans.

It’s a decent episode, showing an interesting light on Diamondback for a change.

Rating 7.5/10

Soliloquy of Chaos

Misty hints that Luke escape else he WILL take the fall, ok she does it subtlety, but not that subtly. And there’s no cop in the back with him because the police are f*cking morons. Anyway, the bullsh*t bullets do rampant property damage and Luke does the same. He’s cornered by one officer but he’s a little less willing to make the shot, believing Luke Cage might be innocent of everything.

Diamondback tells Zip he’s releasing Shades, meanwhile Domingo is hearing from his associates that Diamondback is unstable and needs to die, Domingo agrees. Misty wants to be doing something but Ridley isn’t having it. Mariah looks at the wreck that was Harlem’s paradise, she’s not happy that Diamondback wrecked it.

Oh look, Stan Lee Cameo. Anyway, Luke stops a robbery and gets a new hoodie that doesn’t have bullet holes in it. Candace calls Misty, offering to talk. They meet on the streets and she confesses what she knows, she agrees to testify if she can be kept safe, she is clearly terrified of Mariah, even more so than Cottonmouth. Misty agrees to take her to soledads, but unfortunately it looks like she was being watched.

There’s a radio broadcast about the effect Luke Cage is having, and how the perception of his innocence is spreading. Apparently, he’s rapping as well. Oh look, the shop is now selling hoodies with bullet-holes in them to show solidarity with Cage. After the cops try and raid Pops, but don’t find Luke, Luke conveniently arrives.

Shades is bailed out but he’s a little unsure as to why. He’s brought into an elevator where Zip attempts to strangle him. But he manages to steal a gun, and kill the other two assailants, leaving only Zip, who he kills shortly thereafter after having worked out that Diamandback is plotting to kill him. He finds a pair of sunglasses conveniently in Zip’s pocket.

Mariah knows that Candice can’t be trusted, she gets a call from Diamondback, and she also gets a visit from him, where she receives a large amount of money, on the condition that she side with him. Luke interrogates Turk to find out Diamondback’s hideout. Domingo and crew are ready to stage their little hostile takeover, a place that looks conveniently like Domingo’s hideouts. A shootout of Diamondback vs literally everyone begins and Diamondback somehow survives it. OK, Diamondback does have 2 or 3 lackies left.

Mariah gets a visit from Shades, giving her the last bit of evidence against her. Shades and Mariah agree to try and enlist Luke Cage, Shades has some files that can clear Carl Lucas’ name and give him his life back. Presumably much the like Mariah and the bottle, he wanted this to leverage against Diamondback if sh*t hit the fan.

Luke arrives at the warehouse, finding all of Domingo’s men dead and Domingo stabbed through the leg, Luke sees the entire house is ridged to blow and he gets Domingo out just in time. He asks what Diamondback used to what he did but Domingo doesn’t know, and doesn’t think Luke can stop him, he dies.

Luke and Misty talk briefly as Mariah and Shades enter Pops to parley with Luke cage, he agrees but then Misty reveals he’d followed them and the standoff ends when a grenade throws them off and Diamondback appears and oh my god, what the f*ck is wearing hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

This episode is a lot of setup with very little pay off to any of it. Still, as set up goes, it’s pretty interesting

Rating 7/10

You Know my Steez

Only good things can come with this title

We open ‘back in the day’ with Stryker teaching Luke how to box. Would you believe Stryker could behave like a rational, even compassionate human being? But of course one trip to prison later and he’s mugging like a f*cking idiot.

Back in the fight and erm what can I say about Diamondback

  
I think that just about covers it, apparently it’s Hammer tech! Justin Hammer is offended by the tech you’ve just described as his. And he’s not a real person! Roll credits let’s get this depressing ending over with.

Pops gets smashed up a lot as Misty tries to clear the crowd, unfortunately Misty lost her phone in the previous episode. Mariah left the evidence behind and knows that Misty’s gonna arrest her but has her assistant make a call for her, she has another play.  Also, Shades has the phone.

You get why Diamondback isn’t that threatening, even with the stupid looking suit Luke manages to toss him into the ceiling. Also, hi Claire, nice to remind me you’re in this episode. Don’t forget that Candace is there, that’ll be important soon.

The Police arrive as Luke is tossed out a window, Diamondback comes out and…



No, I’m not gonna stop. He hands a couple of hits but it doesn’t really effect anything and he can see the whirring tech on Diamondback’s back. Mariah does a newscast and mentions Luke’s identity as Carl Lucas and how he escaped Seagate. More fighting, more boxing, more inaction from the police, more of me laughing because Diamondback looks f*cking stupid. Thanks to some chanting he wins, knocking Diamondback out, this is just stupid. Misty gets him out of trouble with the police, for now, but needs to bring him in to make a statement

Candace receives a text message, saying Misty wants to meet Candace, but here we go. Mariah does believe she’s going down. And I won’t lie, we get a good speech from Luke of Harlem and the lesson’s he learned, along with a few bits of evidence that he didn’t commit the murders. I think that’s one of things I like about Luke Cage. Luke has always been too reluctant but we do see the impact he has on people in a way we never did with Jessica Jones or Daredevil.

Mariah is talking in her little cell, making a little story up that places the blame for Cottonmouth’s murder on Diamondback but Misty comes in, showing the audio record of Candace’s interview and her deductions based on the crime scene. Unfortunately, that audio wouldn’t hold up in court, Candace would still need to testify or Mariah will walk, but she’s told that Candace is dead. Shades killed her after luring her out with Misty’s phone.

Misty lashes out at Mariah, but I don’t think she knew about this one. Without the witness, Mariah is freed. It’s soon pointed out to Misty that if Candace had been in proper protective custody she wouldn’t have been murdered.

Luke and Claire are eating some noodles in the police station but they see Mariah leaving. Luke asks about the file but she pretends not to know what he’s talking about. Misty tells them what happened. There is also one other way Candace would still be alive, telling her she’d not contact by text, only by calls where she’d recognise her voice. It would’ve been tough for Shades to get around that.

And 2 Marshalls arrive to arrest Carl Lucas for his escape from Seagate, Claire promises to get him a lawyer who knows what he’s doing after they suck face for a bit. Funny enough, she’s not talking about Matt Murdock. Shades picks up Mariah and gives her Cottonmouth’s gun

Harlem’s Paradise reopens, Misty visits Candace’s body, Clair picks up a number for self-defence lessons with one Colleen Wing. We’ll get to her soon. Fish finds the files that prove Lucas’ innocence. Mariah redecorates her office and kisses Shades? What? Misty arrives at the club, ready to resume her investigation. Diamondback is in an astonishingly poorly guarded hospital as Luke is escorted to prison.

You know what, this episode has a rubbish finale to Diamondback but I don’t mind how it concludes. Sure Luke’s arrest and Mariah walking free are depressing, but it’s not all bad. Luke’s more popular than ever, they have the file to prove Carl’s innocence so Luke won’t be in jail for that long, Claire has a more emboldened sense of purpose. Misty’s not done stalking Mariah by a long shot and as for Candace… sad but so was Chico’s death, I can overlook it. At least Mariah did exonerate Luke of Cottonmouth’s murder

Rating 6.5/10

And with Luke Cage done it’s time to move onto Iron Fist and… oh boy, this is gonna hurt

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